Profit Meets Dream of Obama’s Mother in Finance at Women’s World
The blue spiral-bound book in the Manhattan office of Women’s World Banking Chief Executive Officer Mary Ellen Iskenderian preserves advice from a little- known microfinance expert: President Barack Obama’s mother.
The report is as relevant now as when Ann Dunham, an anthropologist who campaigned for financial services for the poor, researched a rural credit program at Bank Rakyat Indonesia 20 years ago, Iskenderian says. Dunham wrote that a lender shouldn’t refinance loans just to boost its performance, or give customers more money than they can handle. The CEO says she’ll heed that counsel as she leads the nonprofit where Dunham once worked in a new direction, by starting a private equity fund.
The Isis fund, named after an ancient Egyptian goddess, will be “a delicate balance between only a profit motive and fulfilling a social objective,” Iskenderian, 52, says.
Microfinance -- loaning small sums to the world’s poorest citizens -- is increasingly funded by international investors as microcredit nonprofits become regulated lenders. One of them, India’s SKS Microfinance Ltd. (SKSM), backed by George Soros, last year raised 16.3 billion rupees ($348 million) in a share sale. The Boston-based Council of Microfinance Equity Funds has 23 members, including Citigroup Inc. (C)’s microfinance unit in London.
